Here is a quick Blog Interview that I did for my friend Dan McComb over at Biznik.com

For those of you in the greater Seattle area, Biznik is a fun buziness networking group to share ideas and commentary with. For individuals out of the Seattle area, they have groups opening up in new communities everyday.

In any case, here is a quick interview on me.
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Article  by Dan McComb. 

I met Barry through a conversation in Biz Talk a few weeks ago, and that conversation led to us having coffee. Where we talked about something we’re both really excited about: social networks. Biznik is a social network for independent business people, and Barry works for a startup called Blogging Systems that provides turn-key community blog networks for the real estate industry. If that’s a topic that any of you are interested in, or if you’d just like to join us for a drink and talk about your business, Barry’s hosting a Biznik happy hour in Lake Forest Park on Thursday, November 30. But first, a bit more about Barry, from Barry.

Q: More than most people, you’ve spent a ton of time checking out social networks and trying to understand them. How’d you develop that interest?

Laughingly, I am a freak of nature. My father was a computer expert for the National Security Agency. I had a strange childhood. As a kid I played with computers under his guidance and tried to understand how they worked. That wasn’t really my niche, but as I grew up my education and skills put me in a corporate office working with online recruiting.

My computer knowledge eventually combined with my experiences in the social network of the recruiting world, and I soon discovered my love of connecting the dots between people. That led to the past ten years where I became an expert in online marketing and social networking; studying everything from banner ads to blogs- working on different projects ranging in complexity of things like my own personal journal to Monster.com.

Q: Where are you currently working, and what are you doing there?

I work with a team at BloggingSystems.com as the Director of Business Development. We have a bunch of smart minds that have created a community blogging platform that helps people form communities of almost any type. My focus is understanding our technical abilities and finding new markets that can benefit from our technology. I also help our team create new solutions for clients and build relationships with partners in other industries. It’s a great role for me; merging my personal interests as tech-geek and problem solver.

Q: How long have you been blogging yourself, and what do you blog about?

Good question. I’ve actually maintained different online journals since 1990 or so. I’ve used blogging for connecting with friends, making introductions with new people, handling projects within virtual teams, and building different communities with people around the world. Professionally I blog about industries that I see having huge benefits with the Blogging Systems platform- real estate, mortgage companies, credit unions, newspapers, and education. The list goes on and on. I’m constantly reading information on any group or industry that can benefit in nurturing an online community.

Personally I write about everything else. I am a tech geek by nature. Every now and then I find some gizmo or site that I think has an interesting feature. I also write creatively about my daily life (I’ve done list like top five things at Greenlake) and viewpoints to keep my friends up to speed on personal events. Believe it or not, I also tend to blog a lot of poetry (sometimes 2-3 pieces a day).

Q: What do you think are some interesting trends right now in the social networking space?

I think there is an amazing growth spike happening. The social networking space is at it’s infancy. We went through the 90s having commercial internet destroy a lot of the human connection we had. For lack of a better phrase, the web destabilized some of our real-world aspects of community. Technology has now developed the tools to help rebuild that lost sense of personal interaction and people are flocking to it like crazy.

In the big picture- the blog total is up to 55+ million, communities like Biznik are growing at amazing rates, and even major corporations are starting to discover how powerful virtual communities are becoming overnight. Things like cell phones and PDAs are helping to cross the barriers of web connectivity and offline geography. For me, the real exciting part of my daily effort is helping real world people and businesses merge the power of online communities into an actual geographic or professional area.

Q: You’re hosting an event on November 30th that will be about “friendly ideas for doing business online through blogging, search engine optimization, word of mouth, and buzz marketing.” What can members who attend your event expect to learn and experience?

I’m hoping that attendees will sit down and enjoy some in-depth conversation regarding how online trends are opening up really big opportunities for them. I like to share my experience and viewpoints with other people. I have a talent for what I do. I also hope that attendees bring some of their own personal energy to the conversation and help me understand what challenges they are facing. It would be great if a few talented people showed up and started other conversations regarding experiences they’ve had, and leave me with some amazing new train of thought at the end of the night.

My end goal of having discussion groups with creative professionals is this- I really hope that the Biznik attendees realize the best asset of any community is the talent of its members. I think there is a lot of information and intellect in the Biznik crowd- I can only hope that someone shares with me as much as I can share with them.